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Sorry, I don't have a link, so have to paste entire article. This was forwarded via one of my animal rescue groups.
Ex-con preyed on dog lovers Fraud charged:
One woman, who lost beagle, calls schemer "scum of Earth."
By RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/01/05
Andre Gould used the Internet to find the heartbroken owners of lost pets as part of a lucrative scam, Atlanta police said Monday. Gould, 37, allegedly persuaded as many as 17 people in six states to wire him $85 for a pet carrier to fly their dogs home, plus any extra money victims wanted to send. He got the idea from a news story of a similar scheme in New York almost 20 years ago, police said. But the owners never got their pets, and Gould has been charged with fraud and racketeering and jailed on $65,000 bond.
Authorities say Andre Gould used the Internet to lure heartbroken victims into his scam.
"He's the scum of Earth," Ann Rittenberry of Antioch, Tenn., said about Gould, who told her his name was Ron Barton when he called with news of finding Peanut, her son's beagle. "It's the lowest of low, preying on people who are desperate to get their animals back." Rittenberry and Justin, her then-8-year-old son, waited in vain Dec. 22 at the airport in Nashville for Peanut. "I had to tell him Peanut wasn't coming home after all," Rittenberry said.
Police Detective Paul Cooper said Gould, who faces as many as 20 years if convicted, explained his system to police after he was arrested at a Buckhead motel Friday. According to Cooper, Gould's victims had paid him a total of almost $3,000 since December. A woman from Beaufort, N.C., sent him as much as $500.
Gould, just a few weeks out of a federal prison halfway house, would use the Internet to find people who had classified ads looking for lost dogs, focusing on those that said the animal had been implanted with a microchip containing identifying information. He only targeted people who lived some distance from Atlanta. Then Gould used public library computers, and later his own laptop, to find addresses for the phone numbers in the ads. Using mapping software, he would identify cross streets or landmarks to add legitimacy to his claim that he had found their hurt dog beside the road. Using the skills he developed as a telemarketer, Gould would pose as a trucker who had found and nursed the lost pet. After much negotiation, Gould would offer to fly the animal home, at his expense.
Rittenberry, the Tennessee mother, said Gould asked only for money for the pet carrier and instructed the owner that the money be sent to him via Western Union in such a way that he would not have to produce identification. He was caught after mistakenly using his real name to collect money. "He was an old-fashioned Christian truck driver," Rittenberry said. "I didn't think this was a scam."
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